Children's home run by Absolute Children’s Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 1 Registered provider: Absolute Children’s Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to three children who have suffered early childhood trauma. A private company runs the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has two managers. One manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2019 and is suitably qualified. The second manager has applied to be registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers Requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 31 January 2022

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/01/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/02/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 3

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improvement to be good

At the time of this inspection, three children lived at the home. Since the last inspection, two children have moved out of the home and two children have moved in. Children’s experiences and progress are mixed. Children have made good progress in some aspects of their lives. However, at other times, children have not received the help and care that they have needed.

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improvement to be good

Children are cared for by a nurturing staff team. The inspector observed lots of positive interactions between staff and children. It was good to see children cooking their favourite meals for everyone and seeking hugs from staff. Furthermore, a child told the inspector that he wants to live in the home forever and he would score it ‘10 out of 10’. As a result, children feel supported and enjoy living in the home.

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improvement to be good

The children’s educational outcomes have improved. The manager and staff are working closely with one child’s placing authority to find a more suitable provision, while other children are attending school full time. However, the home lacks a suitable learning space for the children to do their homework. For example, although children have desks in their bedrooms, there is no home computer for children to use and a limited number of educational books. This limits staff’s ability to support children within the home and does not encourage children to focus on their learning outside of school.

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improvement to be good

Staff make sure children have opportunities to experience different activities and have fun. Staff encourage children to join clubs, such as swimming and Scouts, and to visit the local gym. In addition, one child enjoys going fishing with staff once a week. Another child felt a great sense of achievement and pride after restoring a piece of garden furniture with staff. As a result, children are having the opportunity to create happy memories and learn new skills.

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improvement to be good

Children are registered at local healthcare services and supported by staff to attend routine appointments. However, staff do not consistently complete direct work with children on important areas such as substance misuse and healthy relationships. In addition, staff have not implemented a clear reduction plan for a child who smokes. As a result, there are missed opportunities to develop children’s understanding of risk and encourage children to make healthier lifestyle choices.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the importance of children seeing their family and friends. The children enjoy spending time with their friends and family in the community and also welcome them to visit the home. This means that the children enjoy similar experiences to their peers.

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improvement to be good

Processes to successfully support children to move out of the home are not always followed. For example, for one child who is due to leave the home, their Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 4 independence planning is minimal and plans in place do not represent thoughtful and purposeful care. This does not ensure that children are fully prepared to move to their next home.

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improvement to be good

During the inspection staff could identify the steps that they would take to respond and prevent children’s risk-taking behaviours. However, children’s written risk assessments do not fully evaluate or mitigate risk. For example, one child’s smoking risk assessment does not provide staff with strategies and expectations of how to manage this risk. In addition, another child’s substance misuse assessment fails to provide staff with any guidance of how help the child reduce this behaviour. This means that staff do not have all the information about how to respond to children’s known behaviours. This approach to risk management does not promote children’s well-being.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not always effective when helping children manage their routines. For example, one of the children’s bedrooms was in an unclean state and there were stains on the shelves and repair work was outstanding. The manager and staff have no plan in place to monitor the child’s bedroom and support the child to maintain a clean and comfortable space. As a result, the room felt uninviting and was not a suitable place for a child to relax.

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improvement to be good

Incidents in the home have reduced. There has been one physical intervention since the last inspection. The manager has introduced a new recording system to ensure that when physical intervention is carried out by staff, it is recorded in line with regulation. As a result, the manager’s oversight of physical interventions has improved.

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improvement to be good

Medication arrangements are not consistent. For the majority of children, medication is safely stored and administered. However, during the inspection, it was identified that a child who had been assessed by staff as competent to self-administer medication had not been taking his medication correctly. Furthermore, the fridge where the medication was stored was dirty and contained food. This practice does not ensure that medication administration is safe, which could have implications for the child’s health.

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improvement to be good

The staff celebrate children’s achievements and use incentives effectively. One child was recently given a scooter in recognition for him completing his reward chart and another child is looking forward to being given a new pair of trainers when she has completed her exams. This practice supports children to recognise their progress and has a positive impact on their experiences.

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good

Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 5 Leadership and management of the home requires improvement. While some changes have been made to address the shortfalls found at the last inspection, managers have failed to take sufficient action to meet all of the requirements, and these have been repeated.

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good

Since the last inspection, a new manager appointed, he has applied for registration with Ofsted. The new manager is committed and said that he wants the home to do well. Staff describe the manager as supportive and approachable.

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good

External professionals involved with the home commented positively on the communication skills of the staff team and their commitment to supporting the children. During the inspection, a social worker for one child said, ‘The home feels like a family, and staff go above and beyond.’

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good

Managers have failed to ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills to meet the children’s specific needs. Managers have not reviewed staff training to understand what they require, nor is there a plan about how and when they will deliver the relevant training. For example, staff have not completed training to understand how substance misuse or sexualised behaviour may impact children’s progress. Furthermore, not all staff have completed training in the home’s therapeutic model of care. This means that staff are not always provided with the skills and knowledge to keep vulnerable children safe and to provide consistent care.

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good

The workforce development plan is not effective. The plan in place does not include information about the staff structure, training and timescales for inductions. Consequently, expectations for staff are not clear.

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good

The manager has not ensured that children’s case records contain up-to-date and accurate information. There is evidence of the manager raising concerns with the local authority about missing documentation. However, this has not been escalated and requested information is still not available. As a result, staff do not always have information they need to coordinate children’s care and well-being.

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good

Children’s daily records are not kept in a way that helps children to understand their daily routines and do not provide a clear oversight of the children’s experiences. This does not support the children to make sense of their time in the home and impacts the manager’s oversight of the care provided by staff. Managers have introduced a new online recording system. The new system was still being implemented at the time of this inspection, but the manager recognises this as a way to improve standards of record-keeping.

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good

The statement of purpose has not been updated in line with regulation. The document does not provide sufficient information about the care provided in the home. This means that Ofsted does not have the most up-to-date information.

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good

The manager’s monitoring and reviewing systems require improvement. The manager has failed to identify the shortfalls raised at this inspection. Furthermore, managers have not completed the action plan that they created following the last Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 6 inspection. This demonstrates a lack of planning and does not provide assurance that the managers make improvements that are in the best interests of the children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 7

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that plans are implemented swiftly to help children reduce their use of cigarettes.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered manager should ensure that children are provided with support and educational resources to develop an understanding of substance misuse and healthy relationships. 22 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager having plans in place to manage risk effectively. 22 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 8 They must also ensure that children are supported effectively to know how to keep themselves safe and that children’s bedrooms are well kept and routinely checked for hazards.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential,

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experiences, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should also use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a) (2)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that all staff complete child-specific training.

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Requirement Due date

Furthermore, the manager should ensure that monitoring systems are effective in identifying and responding to shortfalls in staff practice.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 22 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (5))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the statement of purpose being up to date in relation to the care that is provided in the home. 22 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. 22 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 9 In particular, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that medication is administered to children as prescribed. The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child and are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that children’s case files include up-to-date documents, such as care plans. 22 July 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19)  The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1. The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff, including the home’s manager. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person should ensure that staff help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home or to live independently.

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Recommendations

This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand the importance of careful, objective and clear record-keeping, and that the records play a significant part in a child’s life history. Furthermore, records should tell the story of the child’s time in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5) Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 10

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Absolute Children’s Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 142 West Malvern Road, Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 4NJ

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Inspector

Sophie Hills, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2525807 12 to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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